The Wild Boar Problem

There is plenty of game of all sizes – deer, hares and pheasants – for the most recent hunting season in about 40 départementssouth of the Loire in France. But once again, for sheer numbers, nothing can compete with the wild boar. Despite a nationwide drive to check their numbers, launched last year by the environment minister, Jean-Louis Borloo, and despite a tenfold increase in the number being shot by hunters over the last 30 years (more than 560,000 were slaughtered in 2009), the boar population is still rising steadily.